The present invention relates to a method of processing silver halide photographic materials. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of processing printing light-sensitive materials adapted for rapid development.
The consumption of silver halide photographic materials is constantly increasing today. This has caused an increase in the volume of silver halide photographic materials to be processed, with subsequent recognition of the need for processing photographic materials with greater rapidity, or increasing the volume of photographic materials that can be processed within a given time.
A similar tendency is found in the making of printing plates. With the recent demand for realtime processing of information and with the rapid increase in the frequency of information processing, a need has arisen for plate-makers to supply their products to users within a short period of time and yet with a greater number of plates being processed. In order to satisfy this need of plate-makers, it has been necessary not only to further simplify the overall printing process but also to process plate-making films with even greater rapidity. However, as it turned out, if the speed of photographic processing is simply increased and, in particular, if the length of processing line is shortened with a view to accomplishing rapid access photography of a kind in which development, fixing and washing and/or stabilizing steps are completed within a duration of 40 seconds, the processed photographic materials experience increased color remnant or unevenness in color remnant.